We are Voices for Racial Justice. On October 28, 2014 OAP changed our name. For several years, the staff and board of OAP have thought about a name change. But these things are challenging. Although Organizing Apprenticeship Project no longer described all of the work that we do, and did not make clear our commitment to building racial justice, it has been around for 21 years. People know us as “OAP” and love what “OAP” means.

But the best organizations grow and evolve. We know that to build a shared network and movement for racial justice in Minnesota, we need to draw more people in. More equitable communities, where all people have the chance to learn, work, and live well, without running into barriers to those opportunities, are good for all of us. We also know that we must break down institutional and structural racism in order for those opportunities and equitable outcomes to be a reality.

The board and staff agreed that we wanted to more boldly claim our vision – racial justice. We also agreed that what we are building doesn’t live inside an organization, but stretches out to the communities of color, American Indian communities, and many allies who lead this work with us. All of our multiracial, multicultural voices are part of building racial justice. After many sessions of giant sticky notes, we arrived at our new name: Voices for Racial Justice.

We are celebrating this name change, as well as the journey that got us here. And, of course, we are looking forward to the movement-building that continues through organizing and training, advocacy with (not for) engaged communities, and the research and policy tools that tell our story.Which isn’t such a new name after all. For two years, we have used the name Voices for Racial Justice as the OAP blog site. This grew out of our Voices for Voting Rights campaign to defeat the voter ID amendment in 2012. We have grown comfortable in our Voices – so an already familiar identity will be easy to slip on.

Not much else has changed. We will still lead with the importance of organizer and leadership training. We will still practice the authentic community engagement that guides our strategic convenings and all our work. We still lead campaigns for change, whether in education equity, health equity, voting rights, or criminal justice. We will continue to work with communities to develop the policy tools that help organizers tell a powerful story and hold leaders accountable to building racial equity.

Last fall, I was honored to be a guest on Lissa Jones’ KMOJ program Urban Agenda, talking about a piece on racism I had written for the Star Tribune, and the connection between disparities and structural racism in Minnesota. These are the issues we work on every day at OAP.

What I did not know was that just outside the Twin Cities, a 27-year-old man named Kevin Reese was listening. He was listening from Lino Lakes Correctional Facility where he is currently incarcerated, in the tenth year of a 14 year sentence. A week later, I received a letter in the mail from Kevin. He shared his desire and struggle to learn everything he could during these “very important developmental years” in his life. In his effort to be prepared for life outside prison, he had “tapped into every resource the prison had to offer but those resources are limited.”

He thanked me for raising criminal and prison justice issues: “You speaking about that was just oxygen to my lungs. It reminded me that yes there are people who still care. Thanks, that meant a lot.”

Finally, he asked for a connection: “…this letter is just my attempt to help build some type of bridge between us in here and the community our there. I figure if you all are doing work out there then I figure so should we.”

So I wrote back. Since then, Kevin and I have corresponded by mail and our work together has evolved. We have had three in-person meetings. We are now, with the partnership of the Lino Lakes Program Director LCie Stevenson, planning a one-day workshop we are calling “Bridging the Gap.” The workshop will take place on October 1 at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility. We are working with the staff there to make it possible for inmates to spend the day with community leaders, learning about the opportunities and challenges related to employment, education, housing, and other transitions.

But I believe the centerpiece of the day will be a panel of inmates sharing their vision for justice in Minnesota, focusing on their experiences in the state corrections system. This panel will offer a rare opportunity for us working in the community to hear directly from men who are thinking deeply about what it will take for their transition to life outside prison to be successful. They are aware of the multiple barriers to opportunity they will face upon their release, and want to do everything they can to be ready to rejoin society as productive, contributing members.

Right now, Kevin and I are planning the agenda for the day, working around the complication of two required inmate counts. We are looking forward to creating a video narrative coming from several inmates at Lino Lakes. Soon I will be taking my colleagues from Line Break Media with me to conduct interviews with five inmates, who have 142 years in sentences between them. On a recent phone call, Kevin described one as an aspiring writer, another who wants to make videos. “Me,” he said, “I just want to be a student.”

On October 1, we will come together – inmates, Lino Lakes staff, and community leaders – to develop a shared vision and agenda for the corrections system and for the systems that affect individuals with a criminal record. We are asking the Department of Corrections Commissioner and other DOC leaders, as well as legislators, to join us that day. I hope that those attending will take the opportunity to listen carefully to Kevin and his colleagues. Hopefully, we will leave that day with the stories, information, and inspiration to move the work for justice forward.

Stay tuned – we will be sharing the video narrative we create, as well as the call to action that comes out of that day. Already I know that Kevin, Lovell, Ezekiel, Mario, and Joseph are thinking about improvements to the youth offender program to include mentoring and ideas for making the transition experience of long-term offenders more successful.

Kevin calls me weekly right now as we work to plan the event. Every time I tell him, please let me pay for these calls, knowing that the cost of phone calls from prisons is high. But Kevin always refuses, promising me that I can buy him a cup of coffee someday. I am looking forward to many cups of coffee together.

After every election, Minnesotans love to talk about high turnout at the polls. Even when we have recounts and narrow victories, the story on the news is always about our proud voting tradition.

But the reality about that tradition is much more complicated. Black folks are missing out on elections at an alarming rate. Many of us have had our Civil Right to vote taken away by the Justice System. Some of us just don’t believe our country’s democracy is for us. And why would we?

When I hit the block with a clip board, all I hear is “Vote? Vote for who? What are they going to do for me?” and I have finally learned to stop arguing. The answer to the question is “nothing.” No one is going to do anything for our community. As a matter of fact, they will pass policies that result with more Black folks behind bars than during slavery. Corporations will make sure that unemployment stays consistently high and our wages drop through the basement. Not only will people in power not help us, they will fight against us for their own personal gain.

Well, I say enough is enough. Instead of encouraging folks to vote, I am encouraging folks from my community to build. Build a block of voters that hold elected officials accountable. Build an agenda with policies that work in our interest. Build leaders to run for offices. Build organizations focused on power for our community.

This Saturday, we are hitting the doors on the North Side of Minneapolis and the East Side of St. Paul. Our goal is to generate support for the restoration of voting rights for people who have had their rights taken away because they are currently on probation and parole for a felony conviction. Please join us, change starts by connecting with each other in the community. Here is the information to get involved:

How can we explain that Minnesota is one of the healthiest states in the country, but also one of the states with the greatest inequities in health?

Did you know that young people in American Indian, Latino, and African American communities have the highest number of obese people in Minnesota? Did you know that Latina and African-American women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer at later stages? This means that although more white women are diagnosed with breast cancer, a greater number of women of color die because they do not have the same opportunity for earlier and therefore more successful treatment.

What explains these differences? Many of us think it is due to family genetics, or that these young people and women make bad choices or eat poorly and/or do not exercise, or because they chose not to see the doctor early enough. Although these things do influence the health of individuals, through much research and analysis we now know that genetics and doctor visits contribute just 20 percent to the health status while 80 percent of health status is related to the social conditions and environment in which people live.

Perhaps you have noticed that there are areas or neighborhoods more insecure than others, with fewer parks and recreational areas, with a greater number of stores selling tobacco and liquor, and perhaps you have also noted that it is precisely in those areas where low-income people and low-income families live. It is also in these areas where a greater number of foreclosures occur. Have you also noticed that in many cases, it is these areas where communities of color (African American, Latino, African and Asian Immigrants) and American Indians live? Not only common sense, but also research has shown that these social factors seriously affect the opportunity to make healthy choices, and they also explain why the white community has greater opportunities to live longer and have healthier lives.

These conditions did not occur naturally, but are the product of decisions made by those responsible for public and private entities. Let’s think for a moment about how decisions are made on where to build parks and roads, or what kind of mortgage loan is offered to those who want to buy a house, and all decisions about public health policy, labor, transportation, and more. These decisions establish differences in the opportunity to be healthy individuals with healthy families and healthy communities. These differences in access to opportunities between communities of color/American Indians and whites is what we call racial inequities.

We live in a country that upholds equality, and no one would argue that it is a great value. However, this becomes problematic when it is also a reality that communities of color and American Indians need more investment because historically they have been denied opportunities to be more prosperous and healthy. So instead of equality (to give everyone the same) we ask for equity (to give according to the challenge, which means to invest more on those communities with the greatest challenges).

This is my job at OAP, to be part of the efforts that are changing the social conditions that disproportionately affect our communities of color and American Indian communities. OAP works to advance racial, cultural, and economic equity in Minnesota and by achieving this, all Minnesotans will be healthier and will thrive.